Labor Secretary Hilda Solis

Note 6/21/2010:  this is a repost of an article originally published on 5/3/2008

From the Department of Labor’s F.A.Q.:

Question: What does the Department of Labor do?

Answer: The Department of Labor (DOL) fosters and promotes the welfare of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States by improving their working conditions, advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, protecting their retirement and health care benefits, helping employers find workers, strengthening free collective bargaining, and tracking changes in employment, prices, and other national economic measurements. In carrying out this mission, the Department administers a variety of Federal labor laws including those that guarantee workers’ rights to safe and healthful working conditions; a minimum hourly wage and overtime pay; freedom from employment discrimination; unemployment insurance; and other income support.”

Did you see anything in there about making sure illegal aliens get paid?

Me neither.

The AP reports:

Day laborers, many of them Hispanic, are sometimes denied payment and are afraid to press for wages when they’re in the country illegally. Solis, who took office Feb. 24, said she takes this “very seriously.”

“We’re going to have people going out in the field and investigating,” Solis said, noting that she differs from her predecessor, Elaine Chao, in this approach. “We’re going to be more robust in this area and also with respect to OSHA.”

I would call this just one more example of an Obama appointee looking out for a favored group rather than for all Americans – you know, like we’re paying them to do – except this is worse. Much worse. Not only is the new Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis a blatant ideologue who is advocating for people who, by their very presence in our country, are in criminal violation of federal law, but she herself may find herself in direct violation of federal law -  not to mention the trust of the American people – if she follows through with her stated goal of “Ensuring undocumented workers get paid”.

(Maybe we need Robert Gibbs to parse this for us: “OK, what she meant to say was….)

Perhaps Solis should familiarize herself with the Immigration and Nationality Act, which “sets forth the conditions for the temporary and permanent employment of aliens in the United States and includes provisions that address employment eligibility and employment verification”.

According to the DOL website, “Under the INA, employers may hire only persons who may legally work in the United States (i.e., citizens and nationals of the U.S.) and aliens authorized to work in the U.S. The employer must verify the identity and employment eligibility of anyone to be hired, which includes completing the Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9). ”

(See  INA: ACT 274A – UNLAWFUL EMPLOYMENT OF ALIENS  [8 U.S.C. 1324a] )

Seems pretty damn clear to me. The Department Of Labor, which Hilda Solis now runs, says illegal aliens cant legally work in the USA.

Where’s the gray area? Where’s the confusion? The ambiguity?

While it is true that several courts have ruled that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which prescribes standards for the basic minimum wage and overtime pay, applies to illegal aliens if the employer does not make a good faith effort to verify a job applicant’s employment eligibility, the language of the FLSA does not grant the Department of Labor to go to bat for illegal aliens. More importantly, the larger issues of employment eligibility – remember, she specifically wants to protect undocumented workers paychecks – would logically appear to trump any FLSA concerns anyway.

It is not Hilda Solis’ job to advocate for the illegal alien work force. It is her job to protect American citizens, American jobs, and authorized aliens in the work force.

The bottom line is this: In Obama’s Amerika, where the quest for mass amnesty and a permanent democrat majority is a top priority, a female Hispanic labor secretary throwing bones to the illegal alien population is good for business. The rest of America – you and me, those of us who actually belong here and still cling to the American dream – can go pound salt.

Hilda Solis is selling out the American worker, and is beyond unfit for the office she holds.

-Cnation